Saw Bench Pt 2 – More Blood Than Sweat and Tears

While I admit it was probably more planing than may have been necessary, it was definitely a learning experience. My lack of a scrub plane did make things a lot more laborious, but as per a comment from Smitty_Cabinetshop on LumberJoocks, my technique and stance probably did not help. I do admit he was right, but not entirely my fault. I blame my “bench” which is nothing more than an unfinished miter saw stand. More of a long cabinet on some casters, parallel clamps for a vise and scrap wood for a planing stop, but it works for now. I tweaked the way I was working around it so I could get a better stance. I finished the milling, and although still exhausting, wasn’t that bad.

The next set was working on the cutting the notch for the “legs”.

Due to the aggressiveness of my Home Depot panel saw with it’s “3 cutting faces”, I started the cut with a backsaw and then take over with my panel saw. Whenever I place my thumb to start the cut with the panel saw, since it cuts on both the pull and push, I’ve almost chopped off bits of my thumb and nail a few times.

After I cut out the notch from each of the legs, I grabbed my chisel so I could add a chamfer to the edges. Not exactly paying attention to what I was doing, I didn’t realize that the cover to the chisel few off when I grabbed it. As I went to pull it off, still not looking at the chisel, I just happened to slice my finger.

Nothing major, just added some decorative elements in the form of blood to the saw bench. Finished adding the chamfer with no problem after that.

Next, I was gonna attack cutting an angle on each of the sides. Marked my line 3″ over and 3″ up, put it in my clamp and was gonna cut it the same way as the notch in the legs. I began to put the saw kerf notch in the board with my backsaw. Well, as I mentioned in pt 1, my backsaws are not sharp. My saw just happened to jump, and well….

I should have just cut board on it’s face with the backsaw… Don’t ask me why I didn’t. The saw is dull, but it would’ve worked.

Anyhow, I marked where the sides meet up with legs and cut those notches. I don’t think clamped my first cut too well because this is what I got.

With a little more work than it should’ve taken due to my crappy sawing, it cleaned up just fine. The rest were cut and came together quite well if I don’t say so myself.

All that’s left is securing it all together. I’m thinking padauk dowels…

I can see that the example I have set is wearing off. Just because I continually spill drops of blood on my own projects doesn’t mean you have to do it too. If it makes you feel any better, I find these little nicks and cuts are part of the initiation period with hand tools. Eventually they callous over and toughen up. Secondly really sharp tools leave cuts that heal very fast. If you think of it, share a pic or two of this 3 cutting face saw from the Depot. It is amazing how modern manufacturers try to reinvent a perfect form only to screw it up. That must be exhausting to cut on both push and pull stroke!

I may have exaggerated on saying it cuts on the push and pull, but take a look at the picture and you may see why I say it does.
To me, and of course I’m no saw expert, it looks like it has the tooth geometry of a Japanese saw. Here’s a side by side of this saw with my D8.
Maybe it’s more of a mental thing to say it feels like it cuts on the pull but it definitely still sucks. Can’t wait to sharpen the D8.